Halloween

Eror Family Ski Day

Alex and I on Cecret Lift at Alta

Uncle Steve and Carsen

Carsen

Grandma Judy, Alex and Me

Patrick kept Alex entertained and warm in the lodge... it was a really snowy day.

AHHHH... breakfast at the lodge.

Gingerbread Houses

New Years Eror Family Ski Day

We had an awesome time at Alta with the Eror Fam this winter even though the day turned out to be frigid. Here is Grandma Judy and Grandpa Steve skiing with Carsen.



Alex thought my goggles were cool. He kept asking to try them on.



Since is was pretty cold we kept Alex in the lodge for most of the day. But that is ok, because he had a baked potato and gummy bears!



I can't believe we have it on video, but here it is. Carsen is skiing from his daddy to his grandpa! Carsen you are awesome!!!!!

Carsen Skiing
Uploaded by patriciabarnes

The Boar's Head Carol

On a Sunday afternoon several weeks before Christmas Patrick and I heard the most inspiring piece of music we had yet to hear in our lifetime, The Boar's Head Carol. believe it or not it is a real christmas carol. Legand has it that a Student at Queen's college at Oxford over 500 years ago was attacked by a boar on Christmas. He choked the boar with a copy of Aristotle, cut of its head and wrote a song about his experience.



The culinary arts are something we take seriously in the Eror house. Every year at Christmas time we attempt new and glorious culinary feats. This year Catherine's white chocolate orange mousse in a cup layered with chocolate mousse was the winner. In years past we have had enjoyed dishes such as roast goose and seared foi gras. (Well most of us love foi gras... in my opinion it best left unseared and eaten strait out of a can!) We like to try the new and fabulous. (Some of us, think that the new stuff is scary and would rather watch from a reasonable distance.) And its ok that Catherine doesn't like seafood and Melissa doesn't like unusual textures and I hate all green salad. We all take part and make due and often we make marvelous discoveries. It was at meals like this that we developed a love of stinky cheeses and perrier. Well, the boars head carol gave us an idea. A real culinary shocker!



Imagine the families' suprise as mom stood and put a green felt hat on her head and with a strait face recited the story of the boars head carol along with a translation of the latin lines in the song. As she finished her lines Patrick and I jump out from the corner with a pigs head roasted and bedecked with bays and rosemary singing the boars head carol. We wore tights and tunics along with the beautiful hats that mom made.



The best part was that no one expected it. Carsen thought that it was awesome until Grandpa told him he had to try it... then he freaked out. This video is awesome. Watch for Carsen standing on his chair at the end of it! This is a video of Mike trying it. And ofcourse most of us took a bite or two... Why? because we are the Eror family... and when it comes to food we are a pretty adventurous group. However I think mom drew the line at narrator and didn't actually try any. Catherine did you try some? I can't remember.

Mike takes a bite
Uploaded by patriciabarnes

If you don't have a weak stomach you can watch this weird video of mom and I trying to figure out how to open it's mouth for an apple. I don't know if it was rigor or what but we couldn't get it's mouth open. Patrick attempted prying it open with his bear hands... and keep in mind he had the flu at the time.

opening the pigs mouth
Uploaded by patriciabarnes

Here is the first verse of the song... Sorry about my bad latin spelling.

The boars head in hand bear I bedecked with bays and rosemary!
I pray you my maasters be merry
Qui estis in convivio!

Caput Apri Defero
Reddens Laudes Domino

I just want to make a special thank you to my team
to mom our translator, costume designer, and co conspiritor (have no idea how you kept a strait face!)
Patrick for the guts to go through with it
and the Barnes for driving to the middle of nowhere to find a slaughter house and then letting us store the head in your garage for a while. And you didn't even get to try it.

Santa Cookies

Christmas Eve we slept at Grandma Judy and Grandpa Steve's. We got there just in time to decorate some cookies with Carsen and Raegan and to go to bed.



Alex caught on quickly to cookie decorating by following Carsen's example.



Carsen took his cookie decorating very seriously and he was excited to show his sister and cousin how to do it.



It is a good thing that there were pink sparkles for Raegan to put on her cookies... pink is her favorite. if you ask her she'll say pink is her favorite and red is Carsen's.



The two cousins were really sweet to Alex. There were really sad that he had to go to bed. Raegan kept telling me that Alex wasn't tired. (He agreed with her... but he fell asleep quickly.) He was so glad to have little cousins who wanted to play with him.

Alex's First Day Climbing!

So Saturday was Alex's first day holding on to the wall. Here we are scouting out his very first holds.



Here is Alex on his first 5.7 (With a little help)It was amazing how his tiny fingers fit in every nook and cranny on the wall. Notice how he naturally put his foot on a foot hold! I am so excited for him. I hope he will get to be a great climber like his cousin Carsen.



I think in these next two shots you can really see Alex's personality. He is a pretty expressive guy. I have to be honest, I love his shirt. I am a little embarassed how much I like it, and I usually don't have him wear it in public. But you know what I think as a new mommy it is hard to tell whether he really appreciates all I do. So I put him in this shirt... a lot. (By the way our moms and dads, thanks for all you do for us. And if I had a shirt like that I would wear it for you!)




Alex was so curious about everything that was going on. We brought his truck so that he could walk around, he mostly stood there and gawked. After a few hours though, it kept him entertained while Patrick and I were on the wall. In this picture he was so focused on watching people hanging from ropes all over the place.



Mike and Jyoti came with us and they win the prize because they gave Alex attention while Patrick and I were on the wall. They didn't know that is what they would be doing when they decided to join us.




I probably should have asked Jyoti if it I could post this picture before I did it. I think she looks great climbing... but it is a butt shot. As for Patrick and I we were pretty rusty.



Patrick is a really cute dad. I love watching him take care of Alex. It is funny how you change things a bit to include a baby. Here they are just after Patrick fed Alex some lunch.



I guess this picture pretty much sums up how Alex feels about climbing.

Sterling's Spousification

The Happy Couple!!!



This is everybody Left to right back to front: Steve Jr., Raegan's hair, Mom, Dad, Annie, Chris, Sarah, Sterling, Patrick, Mystery Friend, Carsen, Calise, Justin, Alex, and Me.



This next picture is proof positive that my husband is the hottest man alive... (I bet this post will embarrass him because I said that.)



Hey you two! We are so happy for you. Here is a cute picture of you two with mom and dad!

Eror Cousins say Good Bye

While Patrick was packing and I was getting the fuschia in my hair redone Melissa stopped by with the kids. They cought Patrick just in time before we needed to get on the plane. Patrick suggested that they come down to the Salon so that I could give them a hug before we left.



Carsen challenged me to a race and NA-NA-NA-NA-NA! HA HA I won!



I was so glad that they came to give me hugs. Raegan looks so big with pigtails and Carsen is getting to be such a talker. They were so fun... I only wished that I could take them home with me. So, I have decided that next time I come to visit I am going to get Melissa a Slurpee and Cheetohs from Seven Eleven and it will be like last summer where we sat by the pool and kept Raegan from eating dead leaves and pebbles while Carsen had his swim lesson... only this year we will be keeping Rae out of the pool and Alex from eating random debris.



Alright these next two pictures are called the "Pink and Pig tails" and "Uncle Patrick I am holding as still as I can."... can you guess which photo goes with which title? If you can't then you need to call Carsen I am sure he would be happy to help you out.

Diner Francais!

Every year my family has the tradition of getting together and enjoying awesome cuisine the sunday before christmas. This is a chance for us to spend days in the kitchen creating epicurean delights for our siblings to enjoy. Catherine spent hours and hours working on her Hazlenut mousse cake (cooked entirely from scratch)



, mom and dad made filet mignon with crab oscar and bernaise sauce (one of those dishes with really tricky timing),
we picked the cheese course (Dad picked out the cheeses and we set them out in a delicate fashion. (note- Melissa made the pretty tags for the cheeses.)



This year was different becuase we had Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kara and counsins over to enjoy the meal with us. Patrick mom and I decorated for the meal. It turned out to be an awesome meal.



Afterwards, we all gathered around the projector screen and played ROCK BAND. Its my dad's game. It is so cool because unlike other video games everyone can play together. We played for hours. Patrick got an awesome shot of dad and Jeff. (here dad is playing lead guitar and Jeff is on the drums.